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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Quick Tips About Envelopes

I have been asked several times about the best way to cut an envelope for an A2 (4.25 x 5.5 inch) card. This is usually followed up with a question about cutting an envelope for cards of unusual sizes. I thought I'd give a quick explanation about making envelopes and show you how Design Studio can help you make custom envelopes.

I often make envelopes without the Cricut by following the directions on the Scor-Pal website. Here is a LINK to the page with these directions. To make the envelope a bit fancier, you can use a border punch along the top flap as I did for the envelopes pictured at the top of this post.

The advantage to using Design Studio is that you can do all of the figuring for the size once and save the file for future use. You can also eliminate the step of rounding the corners by using and adapting a standard envelope cut on the Cricut cartridge of your choice.

This screen shot shows the location of a basic card on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. If you set the Default Size at 5 1/2 inches, the card will cut a standard A2 card.

The shift will bring you to the envelope for the card. If you keep the slider bar at 5 1/2 inches the Cricut will cut a perfect envelope for an A2 card. Be sure that you do NOT check the "Real Size" box.

If you check "Real Size" the envelope shape will be cut at exactly 5 1/2 inches tall. Since the shape includes the sections for the flaps, this cut will be too small for a card when it is folded.

Many cartridges have a standard envelope for an A2 card as an option. If you are having trouble finding one, you can use any envelope and adapt it in Design Studio to fit your card.

You should place a square or rectangle on the mat and change the height and width to the standard A2 dimensions (4.25 x 5.5 inches) by entering the correct values in the Shape Properties Box. This rectangle will serve as your sizing guideline. Add the envelope cut to the mat and use the center right handle to change the width and the center bottom handle to change the height. There should be a bit of a gap to allow for the thickness of the card and the folding of the envelope.

The envelope can be adapted to fit another card in a size that you custom make. This card is 4 x 7 inches. The standard envelope can be added at the same height as the card and you will need to use the center right handle to adjust the width to fit the card. You may also need to shift the envelope to center it and make a slight adjustment to the height.

Your adapted envelope will look like this and you can cut and assemble in the usual way. Don't forget to delete the rectangle that was used to represent your card before you cut the envelope.

If you want to make the envelope fancier, you can add an edge in Design Studio or by using a paper punch. I do not care for the cuts left by the "tick marks" for scoring so I eliminate them using "hide selected contour." It is very easy to see where the scores should be made. Remember to fold toward the "mountain" when you score lines for the smoothest result.

I hope that quick explanation helped those of you who have asked about this. Let me know if you have any questions.

Don't forget to stop by the Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot to enter for a chance to win a new Cricut Cake machine. You can get all of the details at THIS POST. Please note - you must leave your comment on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to have a chance to win. I am always interested to hear your comments but I do not have a machine to give away on my blog.

The more I hear about this machine, the more I am interested in it - the cakes are just beautiful! I know I will definitely want to get some of the cartridges - they are not just for cakes and I see some great images in them when I review the contents in Design Studio.

Thank you so much. I'm excited to have this information. I'm finally getting around to looking at and marking my cartridge books. It took you to point out that there are things on our carts I hadn't even noticed. I've been too busy trying to learn how to do all the other things you have so generously been showing us.

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I love to hear from the people who read my blog. I moderate all comments to keep spam off the blog without making you decode the squiggly letters so your comment may not appear immediately.

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Hello and thanks for visiting my blog. My name is Diane and I blog about digital die cutting, photography, papercrafts, cardmaking, scrapbooking, travel and other creative topics that I find interesting.

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